Social sciences

Using consumer perceptions and a contingency approach to improve health care delivery

Article Abstract:

The study investigates whether insights provided by personal influence research might enhance physician effectiveness in patient encounters. Specifically, this article considers how the use of social power behaviors, which are particularly relevant to the patient-physician relationship, might be used in a contingent fashion to achieve maximum effectiveness, as judged by patients. We hypothesize that the effectiveness of expert and legitimate, referent, and coercive social power behaviors are contingent upon two aspects of the medical situation: (1) the riskiness of the situation, and (2) whether the patient and physician are meeting for the first time of have an ongoing relationship. We found that the effectiveness of expert and legitimate social power behaviors, in terms of patient satisfaction, compliance, and action, was contingent on the aspects of the situation that were manipulated. On the other hand, high-referent and low-coercive power were preferred by patients regardless of the situation. The specific implications of these findings are discussed, with special attention given to the difficulty of operationalizing situation variables. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Knowledge development and scientific status in consumer-behavior research: a social exchange perspective

Article Abstract:

The communication patterns (1977 through 1988) between the Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) and other related disciplines are examined from a social exchange perspective. As one way of assessing scientific status, we completed a citation analysis to consider both the journals that JCR authors cite and the journals that cite JCR. The results reveal that JCR performs an important bridging function between the psychology and marketing literatures. However, JCR has had considerably less impact on other cognate disciplines, in particular those represented by the members of its policy board. In general, we find that JCR does appear to be making some progress in achieving its goal of becoming an interdisciplinary consumer-research publication. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)